This invention relates to an apparatus for repairing the lining of a furnace used in a steel making plant, and more particularly to a spray pipe of non-circular hollow cross-section and the mechanisms to operate the above spray pipe.
A conventional spray pipe has a cross section defined by a complete circle and is generally manipulated such that the pipe is tilted in an upward or downward direction as well as to the right or left and is slidable in an axial direction and is further rotated on the axis of the spray pipe.
Although the above described conventional spray pipe has been sufficient and effective when manually operated, such shooting pipe of circular above cross section is not proper when the revolving or sliding operations of the spray pipe must be mechanically or automatically conducted in order to meet the requirement of improved mobility or operability of the gunning device in currently sophisticated steel making plants.
Therefore the spray pipe must be provided with a guiding mechanism which works with rotating and slide mechanisms.
However, since the conventional pipe is made of a comparatively thin circular tube such as a gas pipe, a guiding mechanism cannot be formed thereon, and even if a guide could be provided by making a keyway along the pipe, the pipe would decrease drastically in rigidity or strength. On the other hand in order to maintain the rigidity or strength, the entire weight of the pipe would be increased and the cost of producing such a pipe is considerably very high.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a shooting pipe with a non-circular cross section which would resolve the aforementioned problems.
Moreover the conventional method for repairing the furnace lining requires at least some number of operators who are under high radiation heat conditions and since the pipe is manually operated, the operators are subject to heavy labor.
Therefore it is another object of the present invention to provide a gunning apparatus which is provided with a above spray pipe and desired mechanism which can manipulate the spray pipe automatically.